On Friday We went to the De Young. I like the building. I even like the mesh now. There was one flaw, the top viewing deck is “elevator only”, ridiculous. We met a friend of Amy’s Joe Mangrum. Does ephemeral art. I liked the Hiroshimo Sugimoto exhibit, the suble siplicity of the seascapes and the art about art idea is present in his long warrior photo.

Neil Dawson’s sculpture in the Christchurch square. Had an idea that as I have the Sydney icons and the Wellington one, what about Christchurch? But it is not in that class for me. Not that I don’t like it. I look out my bathroom and there is a mature lancewood, and it creates a silhouette just like sections of the Chalice. It is also somewhat balanced with the tower of the Cathedral, and you’d think that being a person who descends in to alchemical depths that a chalice would suit me more than a spire. But not really in this place.

I’d like to see the square grey and flat with just the cathedral. I’d force the banks to have only human friendly shops facing the square – high incentives for foot traffic friendly places, big tax sticks for glass walls & anything that does not generate foot traffic. More cafes, pubs, galleries, tee shirt shops (we have those already).

So the chalice to me is an art display, not an iconic feature, and so it needs to find a better home. A square is not a gallery, though some works might go in a square, to build the squareness of it not to compete with it. Neil Dawson’s hanging staircase in the Arts Centre seems to enhance and not compete with the courtyard.

It loomed like a space ship over me in the dusk. This is in the middle of a city, but the trees and the building filled the scene. This is the government head office in Wellington known as the Beehive.

Kate & I have been on some great walks in the Port Hills of Christchurch lately. Above Lyttelton are some old concrete structures, I’ll call them bunkers. The were part of the defences against the Japanese who almost invaded New Zealand in WWII. They are quite beautiful sitting there on the hillside. The remind me of Lois Khan buildings (though I have only seen pix) – and I want to draw more of these buildings with minimalist strong lines. Basic stuff. One Khan image done a while back – Salk Interior.

The sketches are from the photos I took, and here are some more pix, to contextualise the sketches.

A hot hazy day with little colour on the harbour or in the sky but the sails of the Opera house stood out. I love this building. I watched it being built in the ’60s, a real ’50s building, everything had fins & looked ‘futuristic’. On my last night in Sydney, before I moved to New Zealand, group of us hopped over the fence one moonlit night & climbed to the top of the main sail, A night to remember.

~

Alas, sketched three days ago! Too busy living life to sketch. I am getting further behind, but have plenty of inspiration. We had a good day on the beaches yesterday & today we are with a friend in the Blue Mountains. Stopped in Lane Cove national park on the way. lots of photos of bush, birds & lizards.

Here is the interior I spoke about in the last post. Salk said to Kahn – build a building Picasso would want to visit. That is inspiring. I want to find a style that suits my interest in these buildings, it is not to be photo realistic, nor just to have fodder for abstract shapes. (the next one did spring out of a layer from this one.)